Hyundai plant in St. Petersburg will not operate in 2023

The Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Rus enterprise in Sestroretsk has extended the shutdown until December 31, which means that if it resumes production, it will be only after the New Year holidays. Previously, the plant assembled three models: Rio, Solaris and Creta. But after the start of the SVO in the spring of 2022, Hyundai, like many other foreign companies, paused business and curtailed car production. The conveyors have been idle for more than a year and a half.

In the fall of 2023, it became known that Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Rus would be sold to an unnamed Russian investor. The most likely buyer is the Avilon dealer holding, which has already bought the former Volkswagen plant in Kaluga. In the near future, apparently, the company will also take over the St. Petersburg assembly site.

Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Rus has existed since 2010, its design capacity is 200 thousand cars per year. In 2022, when the plant was operating for only three months, it suffered losses of almost 19 billion rubles, while other expenses amounted to 56 billion. Of these, 18.4 billion rubles were due to asset impairment, and another 6.4 billion were due to losses from downtime.

Interfax clarifies that the plant currently employs 502 people. It is expected that when the enterprise changes ownership, it will be renamed and relaunched – probably with the help of a new production partner from a friendly country.

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